


What Stays and What Fades Away

by flibbertygigget



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Gen, Redemption, but that doesn't make everything better, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 09:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9882737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: When Anakin finally found him, hidden in the wastes of Tatooine, Obi-Wan Kenobi was changed.





	

When Anakin finally found him, hidden in the wastes of Tatooine, Obi-Wan Kenobi was changed.

There was something hollow in his eyes, something that Anakin, throughout all his years as a Sith, had never seen. Not in any of the Jedi he tortured, not even in Ahsoka or Padme. When Obi-Wan looked at him, he didn't see his student or a lost brother. He saw a threat.

"Get out," Obi-Wan said. There wasn't anger or venom in his words, but their coldness made Anakin step back.

"Master..." he said. Obi-Wan shook his head, refusing to meet Anakin's eyes.

"No, I can't do this. This isn't a conversation I can have with you. Not now, not ever."

"But I've changed!" Obi-Wan tensed, and Anakin took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Master, I've changed. I am of the Light, can't you feel it?"

"And do you think that makes any difference? Do you think I'll forgive you?" Obi-Wan let out a harsh, barking laugh, lips twisting into a parody of his usual sardonic grin. "You may have turned back to the Light, Anakin, I don't know, but even if you have, I don't owe you anything."

"Give me a chance."

"No." Anakin stared at his former Master. He reached out in the Force, but Obi-Wan was as firmly in the Light as ever. "Anakin, I can feel what you're doing. Stop it."

"Sorry," Anakin said grudgingly. "But I don't understand." This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Obi-Wan was supposed to smile, he was supposed to embrace Anakin and forgive him and everything was supposed to be _right_ again.

"There's nothing for you to understand," Obi-Wan said. "So you've come back to the Light. Good for you. But everything you've done, all the lives you've ruined... The slate isn't magically wiped clean."

"But I thought-"

"You were wrong." Obi-Wan sighed, and it was only then that Anakin noticed that he looked _old_. "I am glad that you have come back, Anakin, but after all these years... I saw what you did to the Temple. I felt the way the Force tore apart when you destroyed Alderaan. You destroyed everything I loved, and now... Perhaps I could have forgiven you years ago, but those days are over." Anakin wanted to scream, to tear something apart, to do something to give expression to what he felt, but all he could do was stare at his Master. "I'm sorry."

"Are you going to come back?" Anakin said, voice small and helpless. "Yoda and - and Luke, they're remaking the Jedi Order. You could come back and-" Obi-Wan shook his head.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I can't. I - I need more time for this." Anakin nodded, still numb.

"I thought-" Anakin stopped and shook his head. "I thought that you, of all people, would embrace this."

"Maybe fifteen or twenty years ago, Anakin, but now? It's too late." Anakin pursed his lips and nodded. He would have stuck to his guns, begged Obi-Wan to come back to him, but he could tell that nothing he could say would changed the Jedi's mind. He had never known that the Light Side could hurt almost as much as the Dark.


End file.
